


Hers for the day

by GamblingDementor



Category: Firebringer - Team StarKid
Genre: Childhood Friends, Childhood Sweethearts, F/F, Fluff, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-07-07 23:23:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19859722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GamblingDementor/pseuds/GamblingDementor
Summary: It's Keeri's 13th birthday and Zazzalil has big plans for the day… If they're not cut short by someone else.Cute and fluffy little fic :)





	Hers for the day

**Author's Note:**

> My first time writing this ship! Not my last if y'all are into it.

Zazzalil waited till dawn broke to wake up Keeri. In summer, the cold wet cave turned damp and uncomfortably warm all day and all night and year round, they never slept well. Still, it took three attempts before, instead of rolling over and sniffing in her sleep like a little baby squirrel, Keeri stared up at Zazzalil with squinting, quizzical eyes.

"Zazz?" She asked, her voice thick with sleep. "What are you..."

But Zazzalil silenced her with a finger shoved against her lips and Keeri, who always did whatever Zazzalil asked, said nothing more. Zazzalil rose to her feet and gestured towards the outside. Threading quiet, careful steps between the sprawled sleeping bodies of the rest of the tribe, they made their slow way towards the mouth of the cave. Only once they were standing there, facing the rising sun with a hand protecting their eyes to stare at the horizon beyond the plains, did Zazzalil dare to whisper.

"Happy birthday, Keeri," she sang softly and Keeri, who had been looking exceedingly confused so far, broke into a grin when she remembered that today was, after all, her thirteenth birthday.

Zazzalil offered her hand. Keeri stared down at it and, all fear of getting caught and scolded gone from her gaze instantly, grabbed it and she burst into giggles as they ran off together as far from the cave as they dared. That, of course, was not very far. They stopped as soon as they had reached a small clutter of trees they liked because flowers grew there under the shadow of sparse foliage. It was out of ear range from the cave, though just barely, and out of sight if no one walked too close while they sat under the trees. Zazzalil pointed so that Keeri did exactly that. They were, for the time being, safely veering from the imposed rules. Beaming, Keeri looked up at her expectantly.

"Happy birthday!" Zazzalil repeated. "If we're not too loud or if we hide far away, I bet we got free time till lunch or something. Earlier if Jemilla rats us out... But I didn't want you to collect nuts on your big day!"

"Woah," Keeri was amazed. "A whole morning of doing what we want? That's like... several hours! What are we gonna do?"

That had been Zazzalil's big surprise. She gave Keeri a ridiculously proud grin. Holding up her arms, she swirled around and pointed at Keeri once she faced her again.

"Anything*. You*. Want." She said simply. "It's your day! Well, morning, really, and only if Molag doesn't find us and make us work as soon as she wakes up. Still, pretty cool birthday present, right?"

Keeri nodded vigorously. A hand reaching out, she invited Zazzalil to sit with her. The trees here were so wide that even three or four people could try and embrace their circumference and still they would come up short. It was fresher and more comfortable under here than in the cave, too, though that wasn't hard at all. The only good thing about the cave was that Snarl was as afraid of its darkness as they were of Snarl. But morning had come and Zazzalil knew that the beast only came out at night. For now, they were safe and they were alone. Zazzalil sat next to Keeri, their backs to the broad trunk of the tree, a hand on her thigh to get an answer. But Keeri returned the touch and Zazzalil suddenly remembered another detail.

"Oh, shit, wait, I got you something else!"

She contorted to pluck something out of her pocket. It was moist with sitting in her pocket in the cave all night and now that she pulled it out, under this angle of sunlight, it didn't look the same as when she had found it but it was too late to throw it away. She passed it to Keeri a bit sheepishly.

"It's a rock shaped like a bird."

She grimaced, expecting Keeri to try and fail to hide disappointment, but to her surprise she received nothing but unfiltered joy and gratitude. Keeri threw her arms around her neck and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Oh, Zazz! This is perfect! Thank you so much!"

Zazzalil felt herself going very warm with pride. She cared for Keeri very much. They were best friends, always had been. A few months ago, when she had turned thirteen, Keeri had given her a kiss on each cheek and her share out of the huge bag of berries they had gathered, a lucky harvest that year. She had thought it would be impossible to top, but she had given it her best.

"Soooo," she asked, drumming her thighs excitedly, "Watcha wanna do? We could go try and ride a mammoth, or find a beehive and steal their honey, or dig up bones and scatter them in front of the cave and fake our own deaths, or..."

Keeri let her list off a whole trickle of cool ideas - Zazzalil had been thinking about this for at least three days, which was as good as an eternity of planning in her own view. Finally, her ideas began to slow down just a bit and Keeri sat up suddenly, beaming.

"Oh, I know what we can do!"

"Yay! What's that? What do you want to do?"

Keeri let anticipation build for a few seconds before proudly whispering her idea.

"What if we sat here and made flower crowns?"

Zazzalil stared at her, waiting for her to break and admit that was a joke, but it never came. She quirked an eyebrow.

"You wanna... sit... and make..."

"Flower crowns," Keeri nodded.

Zazzalil hesitated, but Keeri was already leaning over, on all four, starting to pluck the prettiest flowers and making a small pile.

"We could do _anything_ ," she insisted. "Keeri, we could go try and find a parrot and teach it naughty words."

"Oh! Okay!" Keeri cried out happily. "If you want."

"Not if _I_ want," she said, trying to hide some annoyance starting to build up. "We're doing what _you_ want."

" _I_ want to make crowns," Keeri said and shrugged, entirely oblivious to Zazzalil's feelings. She decided not to voice them, not on Keeri's birthday. "Like Molag's. D'you think you could be a leader like her some day? You're so strong."

Zazzalil laughed. Keeri was already busy bending the stems of flowers, shaping them into the beginning of a crown, as if she had done it a thousand times. She probably had.

" _Jemilla_ 's **gonna be the leader," she said. "You know Molag's been training her to take over some day."

Keeri hummed. Zazzalil tried to copy what she was doing but her fingers kept slipping, till Keeri took pity on her and put down her own crown to help Zazzalil, who greatly needed it. Fingers touched against fingers to show her the right way. Zazzalil still thought hers looked a bit too twisted but Keeri seemed content with the result anyways.

"You could just steal her place," Keeri suggested. "Or lose her in the forest and pretend that wolves ate her and that they dropped her remains in a pit somewhere."

"Or actually throw her in a pit somewhere," Zazzalil replied with a smirk, which made Keeri giggle.

Keeri's first finished item was a bracelet of sorts, small pink and purple flowers braided together much more prettily than anything Zazzalil was working on. Grabbing Zazzalil's arm, Keeri pulled it to her and fastened the bracelet around her wrist.

"There," she said, "You're _my_ leader now."

Zazzalil's cheeks were stubbornly burning up despite her best thoughts against it. She could only take what meager attempt at a crown she had so far, unfinished and oddly shaped, and place it on top of Keeri's head. It caught on one of her buns and looked more like a hair tie than a crown but Keeri smiled all the same.

"You'll be my right hand, then. And I'll make it against the rules to make you work."

They looked at each other, a lingering stare before both looking away at the same time. Zazzalil's fingers tapped against her lap idly. She heard Keeri take a big breath.

"I have another idea," she said.

She leaned against the tree, toying with dirt under her fingers, her eyes resolutely on the ground.

"Yeah?" Zazzalil asked much too eagerly. "Yeah, what's the idea?"

"I've been thinking," Keeri said, failing to sound light hearted, "that maybe we should try kissing because I've seen others do it and I thought it looked fun and I wanna try it."

Zazzalil felt an odd jab inside her head, like someone had flicked the part of her brain that was responsible for any decision making with their forceful finger and rendered it useless for just a moment. Being used to a constant flow of overwhelming thoughts, it was strangely peaceful. By the time she could think properly again, she had made up her mind.

"Sure," she said, shrugging and trying to sound much more casual than she really was feeling. "Yeah, if you want."

At first they did absolutely nothing. Keeri stared back at her blankly and even though their hands were twisting eagerly on their laps, neither of them made any move to put to motion what had been offered. When they did, it was sudden and mismatched and their first kiss was a mildly painful mess. Keeri's nose poked at hers, their foreheads clanging together and their hands couldn't stay still long enough to decide which part of the other person to grab. But it was a kiss and Zazzalil poured all of herself into it. Slowly and frantically, they settled into it. Keeri wrapped her arms around her shoulders, Zazzalil finding her waist and they seemed now much more at ease with each other's presence. Maybe even confident.

Kissing was nice. It was fucking awesome. She had no fucking idea what she was doing, of course, but in this point, that wasn't too different from the rest of her life. All that mattered was that she didn't hurt Keeri or make her uncomfortable and by the way she was clinging to her and kissing and kissing and kissing her, uncomfortable was just about the last thing she seemed to be.

Some twig creaked not too far from their hiding spot and they leapt from one another. Zazzalil's heartbeat was catching up, slowly getting back to normal as they realized that no one was coming right now. It could have been some wild animal or just the wind.

It was a little while before Zazzalil dared to look, once her breath had quieted down a little bit. Only a little. Keeri's face was bright pink. One of her buns was loose and the crown had fell off but to Zazzalil, she deserved it more than ever. All at once taking in what they had just been doing, they scooted even farther from one another, as if the very idea of what could happen if they touched each other even once more was terrifying. Keeri tied her hair back up. It was still a little messy. Maybe even prettier that way.

"Zazzalil!" They suddenly heard at a distance and their blood chilled. "Keeri!"

It was Molag. They stared at each other in surprise and terror. Zazzalil was tempted to run the fuck away but she wasn't too sure that Keeri would follow her or what the punishment might be for trying to escape it in the first place. If she had to spend another month cleaning the Almighty Duck's poop from the cave…

"Where the fuck have they run to?" Molag grumbled.

Zazzalil gestured Keeri to silence. Quietly, they flattened themselves against the trunk, hiding every part of themselves from sight. If they were careful enough...

"They're here, Molag," Jemilla said.

She was suddenly standing right in front of them, her fists at her hips. Recently, Jemilla had gone through a fast growth spurt and although she was the younger, she stood taller than both of them now. There was a wicked smug grin at her lips that made Zazzalil's stomach churn in annoyance. She stared down at them in victory. Keeri grabbed Zazzalil's hand and held it tight.

"There you are!" Molag sighed once she reached them. "Oh, girls, I don't even know what to make of you…"

"It's Keeri's birthday!" Zazzalil cried out at once, standing to put herself between Keeri and them. "You can't punish her on her birthday!"

But Jemilla crossed her arms proudly and cocked a proud and satisfied eyebrow.

"They always find excuses, don't they?" She told Molag. "They're reckless and disrespectful and..."

Molag stopped her with a pat on the shoulder.

"Yes, yes, of course, all that," she said but she was only looking at Zazzalil and Keeri.

Jemilla huffed indignantly.

"Your birthday, huh?" Molag asked Keeri, who slowly stood up and nodded.

Her hands were tucked awkwardly behind her back and she wouldn't meet anyone's eyes. Her buns were still crooked.

"Hm, should start keeping track of these things, third one I've forgot this year... Happy birthday, dear."

"Thanks," she said timidly. "I'm sorry, Molag..."

Molag stared at them intently, frowning, before eventually shrugging.

"You know there's beasts out here, right?"

They said nothing. Zazzalil was feeling angry, but she didn't dare to let it out.

"You could get taken and eaten by Snarl, or trampled by a mammoth. You know the, erm, Almighty Duck only protects the cave."

Zazzalil was going to retort something to Jemilla's face, rub that nasty grin off her face, but one glance at a very subdued Keeri shut her up. If fighting back meant they would both be punished, then it wasn't worth it.

"Now, say you're sorry and we'll forget all this."

"What?!"

Jemilla was outraged. She clutched Molag's arm, pulling on it, begging her attention and most importantly her right to whatever revenge she desired to enact against rulebreakers.

"Come on, Jemilla, it was only a few moments and we found them safely..."

"And it's Keeri's birthday," Zazzalil noted.

She was grinning quite smugly herself now and Jemilla's eyes squinted on her viciously. Zazzalil stuck out her tongue and she looked away in disgust.

"You'll be on nut collection today," Molag told Keeri.

"Molag, that's the easiest job!"

Jemilla's woes just never seemed to end, much like Zazzalil's thrilled relief. She could have laughed.

"It's her birthday, Jemilla," Molag replied. "Don't worry, Smelly Balls will help you clean up the cave."

"But he's _smelly_ ," Jemilla whined, in vain.

Zazzalil, be as it might, was indeed assigned to looking after the Duck. It was unpleasant filthy work and Ducker was even unpleasanter company than the Duck Himself, but that night, when Keeri came back to the cave with the half crown still firmly resting on her head, Zazzalil told herself that the punishment had been worth something.

"Look at this," she told Zazzalil excitedly, shoving something in her palm.

It was a rock shaped like a bird. A different bird than the one Zazzalil had found. They both held up their rock close together as if the birds were kissing and smiled at each other.

"Birds of a feather," Zazzalil said and Keeri laughed.

On the other side of the cave, Jemilla shushed them silent and reminded them it was time to sleep. Somehow, Zazzalil had the suspicion that they would be closely watched tonight. Maybe even for weeks or months. Possibly till Keeri's fourteenth birthday and beyond

"I've had an amazing birthday, Zazz," Keeri whispered as they laid down on the damp floor of the cave for the night. "Thanks."

Zazzalil put the rock safely away in a pocket and laid down next to Keeri, turned toward one another. Their hands were close, so close... Keeri touched the bracelet still around her wrist, but said nothing. Slowly, her fingers slipped under Zazzalil's hand until they were firmly clasped together and they smiled at each other with very pink cheeks. They looked away, but their hands did not tear apart till long after they had fallen asleep.


End file.
